#I wanted to draw them but. its late so I can't aaaah

[itstokkii]

A question about your two homelands: South Korea and Uzbekistan

How do you imagine their relationship? Do they know each other? What's others from central asian family relationship with Yong Soo?

teehee(ugly giggling noise)

their relationship is pretty good! recently uzb ordered a railroad system from korea, which is the first time a country purchased a railroad system from korea !! she's truly a trailblazer... mostly, given the economic status of uzb and korea, uzb benefits most from korea rather than the other way around.

the first step in uzbek-korean relations was from the late 90s to the 2000s. during this time, k-dramas first aired in uzbekistan, and the first uzbeks moved to korea mainly in the form of university students studying tech and science(and of which my dad was one of the first to do so lol). so the community was small, but tight.

some of these students would go back to uzbekistan and talk about how developed and nice it was, fueling more interest in korea. some would bring their families/spouses to korea(my dad brought my mom to korea lol), and some would even begin to export uzbek goods to korea(a family friend of ours did this with uzbek melons!! I miss them they were so delish..).

nowadays, the community is gigantic, and uzbeks are the 5th most biggest foreigner group in korea as of 2023. more korean restaurants and products are being introduced in uzbekistan(halal 신라면...what a dream...), though mainly in tashkent.

speaking of tashkent, there's a seoul park since tashkent and seoul are sister cities!! it was made in 2014. however, i don't live in tashkent nor do I have immediate family that does, so i've literally never been around tashkent except for the airport...

another big factor in uzbek-korean relations are the ethnic Koreans(고려사람) that live in uzbekistan. after china and america, uzbekistan has the 3rd largest ethnic korean population at approximately 174000. this was because koreans that immigrated to russia from the late 19th century to early 20th century were forcefully deported to central asia by stalin, accusing them of being japanese spies. since uzbekistan's landlocked with a slightly different climate and crops, they tried their best to mimic korean foods such as kimchi and japchae. uzbeks took note of this and began to eat it as well, as salads called morkovcha and funchoza. morkovcha's actually a popular topping on hotdogs in uzbekistan, which is kinda funny lol

I can see yongsoo taking her around korea to see all sorts of things. they rent hanbok and toured around gyeongbokgung, have a picnic at the han river, and when she feels homesick he takes her to an uzbek restaurant. the first time this happened she probably cried.

they also go cafe hopping, and it's one of her favorite things to do in seoul because of the diverse cafe scene in hongdae and seongsu.

he's one of the people she trusts with taking photos of her the most. he knows what kinds of poses fit the ambiance and vibe, and always angles the camera right. she proudly posts those photos on social media.

watching kdramas is a must!! she probably swoons for a lot of the male love interests lol, and fangirled a bit too hard at gong yoo when she watched goblin. she's glad there's less...intimate scenes compared to a certain other person's dramas...

due to frequent exchange and the sheer number of uzbeks in korea, uzbekistan knows more than enough korean to get around.

yongsoo always takes her to clothing stores and tries finding her pieces that would match her style. she trusts him immensely with this.

bro also gives her love advice lol. what can I say, he's a 2000 year old man trapped in a 20 year old's body. he's got both experience and charm! whether she takes his advice or disregards it is up to her...

he also has other advice regarding an outlook on life, and staying optimistic. he reminds her never to give up on her country and people, since even his war-torn country rose with the power of its people working hard in order to become the success it was today.

other casian countries' relationships speed round!!

kazakhstan: kazakhstan has CU stores, a korean convenience store chain. my kazakh friend showed me how the kazakh chains even have vanilla flavored milk, which is something we don't have here. however as far as im aware, the CU stores are mostly in metropolitan areas. kazakhstan also has an ethnic korean population! there's also more korean companies investing in kazakhstan since they're more developed.

Kyrgyzstan: I couldn't find much, but Kyrgyzstan does have a sizable ethnic korean population also

Tajikistan and turkmenistan: nothing really notable...T^T

in short, korea's known uzbekistan for longer and equally interacts with uzbekistan and kazakhstan!